The Roast of Lab Equipment 2

If you have read our previous posts, you may have seen The Golden Mushroom awarded to the micropipette for its outstanding service to our lab. However, important as the micropipette is, there are many other tools that we use that we would be dead in the water without. We feel that these tools, likewise deserve recognition for their hard work.

Today, we would like to recognize the thermocycler.

Pictured: Left: Thermocycler, Right: His younger brother Minicycler.

The thermocycler is a very handy invention. It has one purpose but it does that one purpose excellently. The job of the thermocycler is to run PCR reactions.

PCR stands for Polymerase Chain Reaction. In short, what a PCR reaction does is replicate a specific piece of DNA in a large strand of DNA. Although the ability to replicate a specific piece of DNA does not sound like a big deal, it is immensely helpful to us.

In order for a PCR reaction to occur, it needs to be cycled through various temperatures, sometimes being hot, sometimes being cold, sometimes warm. The thermocycler does this for us. We put our PCR products into the machine and it heats and cools them as needed.

Now, you're probably thinking "Can't you just do that yourself with a stove or something?" The answer, is yes. However it would be incredibly difficult because we would need to heat them up to the exact right temperatures and keep them that way for the right amount of time, and then quickly cool them down to a precise temperature. We would also have to continue doing this for about 2 hours strait. While it is possible, it would be difficult, less effective, and overall just a pain. Currently, while a the thermocycler is doing its job, we can go off and work on other things. We can even leave it running overnight so work gets done even when we are not here.

Thermocycler, for your tremendous work at making our lives easier, we present you with The Golden Mushroom and a hikau written in your honor.

Thermocycler

You heat and then you cool down

PCR products

To learn more about PCR reactions CLICK HERE!

By Ben Segee